It is not difficult to download torrents anonymously. In fact, there are multiple different ways that you can go about doing it and a wide variety of services to choose between.

Perhaps the most common method is to use a VPN or ‘virtual private network’ to encrypt your connection to the torrent network and divert it through another computer, therefore hiding the IP address which can be used to identify you. These private networks are also great for anonymous web browsing, making them a popular multi-purpose tool for protecting your online privacy. Unfortunately, this process does slow down your connection. For regular web browsing a good quality VPN with fast servers should not have a noticeable impact on your connection speed, but when you are using torrent software, downloading large movie files and so on, the slowdown can be much more visible and can be very annoying. When you are bored and looking for entertainment, you just don’t want to wait any longer than necessary for a download to complete.

To download torrents faster without sacrificing your privacy it is better to use a ‘SOCKS5’ proxy rather than a regular VPN service. This will will mask your IP address in a similar way, by routing your connection through a server (make sure you pick one that doesn’t keep logs!), therefore giving you complete anonymity. But because it doesn’t also include end-to-end encryption, which is better for full security and privacy but not necessary for hiding your identity, it will not slow down your connection by anyway near as much. Also, because the SOCKS5 protocol does not differentiate between different types of network traffic (for example http web page requests, email, torrents etc) it is more efficient and more effective for torrents, and this can also help you to enjoy significantly faster speeds.

There are a few different services out there which offer a SOCKS5 proxy, just as there are lots of choices for what torrent software to use. My recommendation is to IPVanish, which also offers a great VPN service for private web browsing, has a large stable of very fast servers, does not keep logs, and accepts Bitcoin for payment.

Once you’ve registered an account with IPVanish you just need to log into their site, go to the SOCKS5 proxy tab, and click to generate a unique username and password. You will also be provided with the ‘Hostname’ which is the web address through which your torrent software can connect to the proxy server. An example of this is shown in the screenshot I’ve included below:

All you need to do then is to add these three pieces of information into the network or connection settings in your torrent software. If you are using BitTorrent, just go to your preferences and then select ‘Network’ as shown in the screenshot below:

That is really all there is to it so once you’ve done that you can just get on with looking for the best music, movies and TV shows to enjoy!